ENGL 344 - Literatures of Environmental Justice

Units: 4 ; Breadth Area: GE-UD-4; Sustainability
In this course, students will explore literature inspired by and reflecting on environmental justice movements of the 20th and 21st centuries, addressing ecological crisis in dialogue with social justice movements within the United States and around the world.

Breadth Area(s) Satisfied: GE-UD-4 - Upper Division Social and Behavioral Sciences, Overlay - Sustainability
Prerequisites: Completion of GE Areas 1A, 1B, 1C and GE-2 with grade C- (CR) or better (GE Areas A1, A2, A3 and B4 for students on the 2024-25 or earlier catalogs).
Strongly Recommended Preparation: Upper division status (greater than 60 earned semester units) and completion of lower division GE Area 4 requirements (Area D1-2 requirements for students on the 2024-25 or earlier catalogs).
Possible Instructional Methods: On-ground, or Hybrid, or Online-Asynchronous.
Grading: A-F or CR/NC (student choice).
Course Typically Offered: Fall & Spring

Student Learning Outcomes - Upon successful completion of this course students will be able to:

Students will be able to critical analyze and informative engage a history of environmental justice movements and social justice activist concerned with ecological crisis as reflected through literary and cultural texts;
Students will be able to use the methodological and critical tools of literary and cultural studies theory to explore, address, and creative engage social movements in the United States and around the world.

GE-UD-4. Upper-division Social and Behavioral Sciences Learning Outcomes

analyze how power and social identity affect social outcomes for different cultural and economic groups using methods of social science inquiry and vocabulary appropriate to those methods;
demonstrate an understanding of and ability to apply accurately disciplinary concepts of the social or behavioral sciences; and
demonstrate an understanding of and ability to effectively plan or conduct research using an appropriate method of the social or behavioral sciences.

Sustainability Overlay Learning Outcomes

Discuss multiple dimensions of sustainability, including the scientific, social, cultural, and/or economic.
Analyze interactions between human activities and natural systems.
Describe strategies taken by individuals, communities, organizations, or governments for mitigating and/or adapting to key threats to environmental sustainability.